The Encounter by K. A. Applegate
Authors: K. A. Applegate
head appeared, followed by shoulders. He was wearing a Park Ranger’s outfit.
I told Rachel.
“Yeah, there’s a cave in here, all right. There’s some kind of a bird—”
I grabbed Rachel, now fully in fish morph. But the Human-Controller blocked the narrow entrance.
Well
, I thought.
It worked with a helicopter….
With a rush of wings I flew right at his face.
“What the—” He fell back, beating at the air.
I scraped past him.
The Hork-Bajir slashed at the air with one of his wrist blades. He shaved an inch off my tail.
But I was in the air now, and moving faster. Onlyit was hard with Rachel. The weight of a fish is more than a redtail can carry easily. And I had already carried three. I was tired.
Fortunately, I was also very scared. Fear can make you strong sometimes.
Ssseeeewww!
A Dracon beam sizzled the air above me!
Unfortunately for the Hork-Bajir who had fired, the Dracon beam did not stop when it buzzed by me. No, the Dracon beam hit the underside of the vast truck ship. A small, neat, round hole appeared in the bottom of the ship. It was too small to amount to anything.
But suddenly the Hork-Bajir lost his interest in me.
“Fool!” the Human-Controller cried. “Visser Three will have your head for dinner!”
While they were busy panicking, I dropped Rachel into the water with the others.
Jake said.
I said.
I could just barely see them, a small school of fish in the shallows. They swam off and disappeared into deeper water.
As I’ve told you, there are limits to how far thought-speech can reach. We don’t really know what those limits are. But I wanted to stay as closeto them as I dared, in case they needed me. Not that there was much that I could do to help someone underwater.
I didn’t want to stay right over them. I figured that would look suspicious to anyone on shore. It was hard to figure out what to do. The monstrous bulk of the truck ship was overhead, leaving only a few feet open above the surface of the water.
I decided I had to chance it. I flew under the ship, skimming the dappled water below and practically scraping the metal belly of the ship above me.
It was a very difficult flight. I had to stay almost totally level. I couldn’t rise or fall by more than a couple of feet.
Rachel said.
I guess I could have told her the truth. That I was within a few feet of them. But then Jake would have just gotten all mad and told me not to take stupid risks.
I figured that between the time it had taken through the entire morphing process, and carrying them one at a time to the water, plus now the time spent swimming out to the big intake pipe, Cassie had been in morph for just over half an hour. Jake had ten minutes more, then Marco and Rachel.
I asked.
Rachel reported.
Jake announced.
Cassie cried.
Rachel said.
Jake said.
Marco asked.
“Yeah, there’s a cave in here, all right. There’s some kind of a bird—”
I grabbed Rachel, now fully in fish morph. But the Human-Controller blocked the narrow entrance.
Well
, I thought.
It worked with a helicopter….
With a rush of wings I flew right at his face.
“What the—” He fell back, beating at the air.
I scraped past him.
The Hork-Bajir slashed at the air with one of his wrist blades. He shaved an inch off my tail.
But I was in the air now, and moving faster. Onlyit was hard with Rachel. The weight of a fish is more than a redtail can carry easily. And I had already carried three. I was tired.
Fortunately, I was also very scared. Fear can make you strong sometimes.
Ssseeeewww!
A Dracon beam sizzled the air above me!
Unfortunately for the Hork-Bajir who had fired, the Dracon beam did not stop when it buzzed by me. No, the Dracon beam hit the underside of the vast truck ship. A small, neat, round hole appeared in the bottom of the ship. It was too small to amount to anything.
But suddenly the Hork-Bajir lost his interest in me.
“Fool!” the Human-Controller cried. “Visser Three will have your head for dinner!”
While they were busy panicking, I dropped Rachel into the water with the others.
I could just barely see them, a small school of fish in the shallows. They swam off and disappeared into deeper water.
As I’ve told you, there are limits to how far thought-speech can reach. We don’t really know what those limits are. But I wanted to stay as closeto them as I dared, in case they needed me. Not that there was much that I could do to help someone underwater.
I didn’t want to stay right over them. I figured that would look suspicious to anyone on shore. It was hard to figure out what to do. The monstrous bulk of the truck ship was overhead, leaving only a few feet open above the surface of the water.
I decided I had to chance it. I flew under the ship, skimming the dappled water below and practically scraping the metal belly of the ship above me.
It was a very difficult flight. I had to stay almost totally level. I couldn’t rise or fall by more than a couple of feet.
I guess I could have told her the truth. That I was within a few feet of them. But then Jake would have just gotten all mad and told me not to take stupid risks.
I figured that between the time it had taken through the entire morphing process, and carrying them one at a time to the water, plus now the time spent swimming out to the big intake pipe, Cassie had been in morph for just over half an hour. Jake had ten minutes more, then Marco and Rachel.
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